The widespread use of natural building materials such as wood and stone has resulted in a scarcity of these resources. As the consumption of natural building materials increases, their availability decreases, generally driving up the price of the natural building materials. In addition, natural building materials often must be harvested at a location far distant from population centers. Thus, the cost of transporting the natural building materials often adds substantially to their ultimate cost. Stone is particularly expensive to transport due to its high density.
Synthetic building materials typically excel over natural building materials in terms of, for example, strength, flexibility, durability, water resistance, resiliency, repair, continuity, and stain resistance. Synthetic building materials are also more efficient in terms of cost, ease of transportation, and impact on environmental resources, but, are often overlooked because builders and consumers seek the traditional, familiarity, and, sometimes opulence of natural building materials.
Manufacturers have tried to formulate functional synthetic building materials that have the appearance of natural building materials, i.e. wood or stone. One method that has been tried is to add pigment to typically colorless synthetic materials such as high density polymers and high density cast solid surface materials. This process imparts a solid color to the synthetic materials, without the patterns and color variations found in natural materials and other desirable images.
Cultured marble is another material that is sometimes used for building materials. Patterns in cultured marble can be formed by mixing or swirling pigment into a synthetic medium. Thus, color variations in cultured marble are limited to nearly random variations or to solid colors.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,544,584, 4,433,070, and 4,433,070, disclose cultured onyx or cultured marble fabricated which is prepared by combining (a) a locally discontinuous phase (filler) containing a synthetic organic resin portion hardened to a predetermined hardness, and (b) a visually distinguishable continuous phase containing a synthetic organic resin portion hardened to the same predetermined hardness wherein the discontinuous phase is distributed in the discontinuous phase. Colorant is mixed with the continuous phase resin by swirling, agitating, or adding from single or multiple points in thin or thick streams to produce different effects.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,067, describes a synthetic onyx fabricated by blending polyester resins and one or more fillers such as silicas or glass.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,290, discloses artificial granite wherein particles of alumina trihydrate are treated with an aqueous slurry of dye or pigment such that the dye or pigment is absorbed along with water. After drying, the particles are colored throughout, so that if a particle is sliced, the interior color is similar to the surface color. The colored particles are formed into a synthetic stone by incorporation into a liquid resin matrix that is subsequently hardened.
Laminates are known in the prior art as materials incorporating printed patterns. Traditional laminates, however, cannot be thermo-formed, and are generally rigid and brittle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,289,818, discloses a paneling member for providing protective paneling for a walled recess, such as for a shower stall or bathtub, wherein the paneling member is co-extruded from at least two different polymeric materials such an acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) base layer and an acrylic surface layer. It is also disclosed that such panels can be laminated.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a laminated synthetic building material incorporating a high resolution image of a natural building material such as wood or stone, wherein the synthetic building material can be thermoformed into selected shapes.